Fiber and Pulp

Preparing

The weather has been truly glorious this weekend! I managed to go out for a short walk yesterday and discovered my neighbor's bleeding heart in bloom. Laureen (my neighbor) is gifted with a real green thumb. Her yard is full of flowers and vignettes of plantings (makes my yard look like a weed asylum:). I love bleeding heart but have never successfully grown it (despite that our yards are quite shady) - probably because the soil is in our yard so full of clay? Anyway, I took advantage of her green thumb to take a photo. :)

I have been preparing for my surgery tomorrow for several days. I still have to pack a bag for the hospital and finish picking up my bedroom so there are fewer (literal) stumbling blocks for movement. :) I am feeling a bit anxious about tomorrow ... but not frightened. I feel quite confident in the surgical and care team (and by the fact that many people I meet have had the same surgery with good outcomes).

This will probably be the last post I make here for several days. I will have my iPhone and iPad with me in the hospital but I don't know how much free time I will have to use them. Apparently you spend a lot of time in physical therapy there (and the rest probably sleeping:).

:) Linda

Anticipation

I am in preparation mode now, all my attention on my impending knee surgery in many ways. The photo above shows a crocheted circle I finished last night - it is intended for Yarndale in England. I read Lucy's blog at Attic 24 regularly (have for a number of years). I enjoy reading about her life in England and take great pleasure, as she does, in bright happy colors. :) She put out a call for mandala circles recently and I made the one above to donate. (I only have to finish stiffening it so I can mail it off.)

Since I have a fair bit of experience at crochet, I decided to try making this one up as I worked. The center is 3D (though you might not be able to tell it from the photo) and the thin orange stripe as well as the outer orange band are added woven-in embellishments. I'm happy with the way it came out but I'm pretty sure there are fancier ones already in Lucy's hands. :) I'm still pondering whether to add a bit of embroidery or beading to the center and outer edge. :)

Last Saturday I went with my friend Patty S. to the Demo Day at Photoscraps paper arts shop in Eldersburg. We spent several hours there, making a whole series of lovely greeting cards with the designers and customers. I am slowly amassing a nice collection of cards - now I just have to remember to send them out. :)

On the way home, we stopped to visit the Knitter's Nest, also in Eldersburg (not far from Photoscraps). What a nice shop! It was small but very friendly - had a cozy chat with the owner as she wound some yarn that I bought (a soft, springy hand dyed 'Tiger Lily' wool to make the Ruffled Shawl pattern). I do enjoy making shawls - they don't have to be fitted and are projects that don't take over long to knit up. :)

I decided this past weekend to regularly take Saturday and Sunday 'off' so I can spend the time with my husband and son without feeling guilty that I'm not doing housework or other obligation chores. So, I enjoyed a quiet weekend with just the three of us. :)

Monday I was back to the grind, working on cleaning up the entryway of our house (the task is still to be finished and is on my 'agenda' for today:). Opening bags of goodies is always fun! The very first bag I found was a collection of Christmas presents from my friends in the Sew & Tell group - I must have put them down this winter and completely forgotten about them. Sad but true - way too much on my mind, between my Mom's passing and closing the store. Sigh. There were all kinds of nice goodies in the bag (and I owe a number of people belated 'thank you' notes:). In the bag was a book my friend Barbara (also a member of Sew & Tell) gave me for my birthday in November -- a beautiful gallery of photos of tribal embroidery from northern India/southern Pakistan. I'll share some of it here at a later date - too pretty to keep to myself. :)

Tuesday I spent most of the day at the Kernan Institute in Baltimore. I had a pre-operative appointment with the anaesthesiologist and a class on the surgery (what to expect during and after knee replacement). Eye opening, to say the least. :P

I also had my weekly nutritionist weigh-in appointment on Tuesday afternoon late. I was excited to find that I managed to lose 1.5 pounds last week -- I finally gave in, mentally and emotionally, to the fact that I cannot simply eat whatever I want and prosper in health. I have stubborn, survival-oriented genes and, in a world of abundance, I'm going to have to pick my way carefully through the caloric choices to maintain any kind of healthy weight. :P My personal inclinations are to eat whatever comes to hand - but that is how I got obese in the first place. Sigh. This does not mean I can't indulge occasionally - but I need to lose the extra weight I'm carrying first. :P

The weather has been really nice this week - warm without being hot, sunny for the most part, and smelling of spring.:) I hope it continues and that the hot summer weather doesn't come too quickly this year - I'd like to go back to walking around the neighborhood when I'm recovered a little and there's no chance I will do that if it is over 95 degrees (the normal pattern in summertime here). LOL!

:) Linda

Meditation Friday

I have not been doing very well with my diet for several months (since my Mom died, in fact). For some time I stayed the same weight ... but now I am gaining again (had my weekly weigh-in yesterday). Sigh. It was hard work to get the weight off ... and I realized today that I will have to go back to the diet to keep the weight off. I have to fight my metabolism just like someone who has diabetes or other physiological conditions. :P Just eating whatever I want and trying to be reasonable about my choices is not working!

I did not buy more food when I was at the nutritionist yesterday because they were getting a new shipment today. So, around 1:15 today, I went around and purchased food for the coming week. Today was coolish (high 60s) and overcast with a breeze. I decided to take my lunch and go to the park to eat. I _was_ supposed to be working on cleaning my new sewing space today, but I did not have the strength for it (my knees are hurting quite a lot lately). I decided that some meditation in the outdoors would be good for me so I bought a salad and took it around to Centennial Park.

I've written before about the park - when I was more physically able, the kids and I used to walk around the lake (the circuit is about 2 1/2 miles). Now I can just manage to stroll down the hill to the dockhouse and sit on the picnic platform. :/  People were setting up a track of some kind today all through the park - blue 'snow fence' type barriers, etc. I'm not sure what they are preparing for (some kind of race would be my guess), but the park was fairly quiet. People walking their dogs, Moms and kids, and that was about the limit. No one was out on the picnic platform so I had the space all to myself. :)

The platform projects out over the water:

If you look really carefully, you can see some little birds perched on top of the footing column. There were dozens of them apparently nesting under the platform. Good place for it - no way for predators to approach. I think they are purple martins or maybe barn swallows - whatever they are, these little birds are serious acrobatic flyers! Any jet pilot would be pleased to be able to maneuver their aircraft the way the birds could fly. :)

There is a dock next to the platform where paddle boats, canoes and kyaks are rented out (on weekends until hot summer comes:). They much have issues with the local ducks and geese wanting to perch on the docks because there were at least two owl figures that I saw, once of which had a moving head:

Here it is with the face turned away. I don't know whether the turning is caused by the wind or maybe there is a motor inside ... but the birds were obviously avoiding it. :)

There were flowers on the tables in pots (petunias and geraniums) and in pots along the sidewalls. Here are two of them:

Foxgloves, looking a little battered (probably by the wind and rain we've had this week). Is this lavendar? I'm not sure:

Of course, the pretty purple flowers caught my eye. :)

The photo at the top of this post is something that grows wild along the sidewalk verge - not sure what it is (viburnum?). You'd think I could remember such simple things. :P

Howard County is pretty good about maintaining the parks - here are two signs I thought were telling:

My luncheon and visit were peaceful and meditative. Put me in a mellow mood for the rest of the day. :) 

Which was a good thing as I got some kind of tax directive from Mom's lawyer and had to run out and hurry to respond to it. :P

:) Linda

Bumbling Along

This week has gone past in a blur - isn't it still Monday? Grin. Actually, I know it isn't because yesterday (Wednesday) morning was the first meeting of the English Paper Piecing Club at Springwater Designs. I had no signed up for this when it was first announced because I expected to be in Kansas (sigh); since I did not go, I thought I'd join the group (mostly for the cameraderie and fun:). Patti Rusk is leading the group and I am going to enjoy it. I only know one of the other students (Kathy St.) so I will get acquainted with some new quilters. :) The photo above shows one of the two projects we discussed/tackled this month, using hexagonal shaped papers (3/4"?).

I bought two charm square bundles of Kona solids to make my little items with for this club - beautiful colors! :) The ongoing project Patti suggested (make one block per week) is a 1 1/4" hexie double flower quilt. I'm thinking I might do it in the smaller hex papers and make a 'doll' quilt with all the bright colors instead. (Not at all sure I can actually create even one block a week right now.)

Since I've retired, I've been going with my sweetheart to bowling on Tuesday and Thursday evenings to cheer for him and his teams. I used to bowl, too, before my knees and back gave out. :P I hope to go back to bowling sometime next year. :) I did manage to snatch one photo that is half-way ok on Tuesday evening (out of maybe twenty or so that I took):

Skip has developed into a pretty good bowler (his average is 179 right now) over the years (he and I have been bowling since our kids were little - maybe 30 years?). When I go, I take some hand work to do while I watch/cheer since I don't enjoy just sitting around. Right now, I'm working on the block from month three of the Nature of Things wool applique project. Here's what I was doing on Tuesday evening:

This is the center block of the quilt - a bird's nest sheltered by ferns. I decided to use running stitch to outline each fern leaf - it looks a bit like the spores along leaf margins to me. :) Here's a closer look at the stitching:

I've already completed the redwing blackbird block and the Queen Anne's Lace block. There's a fair bit left to do on the fern but I did get all the leaves stitched down this week. Now to do the embroidery on the nest and stitch it down, then do the corner embellishment. :)

Tomorrow I will be working on cleaning up my new sewing room again. Hopefully I can start putting my machine table and desk in there soon! 

Saturday I am planning to go to Demo Day at the scrapbooking shop in Eldersburg again. My friend Patty S. is going with me (and I'm hoping to stop at the Knitter's Nest on the way home). Hooray for fiber love and friends to share it with!

:) Linda

PS I almost forgot. On Wednesday evening, my friend Barbara and I met at the East Branch library and worked on quilting together. I think it will work out as a place to do hand work ... I'll have to think about a venue for machine work (Barbara is allergic to cats so we can't meet at my house:)

Mother's Day

 

What a pleasant day I have had today! :) I managed to finish the embroidery on my new iPhone bumper case and am very pleased with it. Got phone calls from my daughter and my niece Stephanie ... and generally have had a quiet, peaceful day. What bliss!

Tomorrow, back to the sorting and heaving grindstone!

:) Linda

Noticing Small Things

There are lots of violets growing in places in my yard - it is shady and we don't fertilize or pamper the grass. Violets are pretty special little flowers and I love the various wild colors they bloom, from palest lavendar to strong purple-y blue. :) Because I love strong color, massed floral blooms tend to affect me emotionally and I notice them quickly. I deeply appreciate the tiny little flowers that other people label as 'weeds' more -- maybe because they are generally unusual in their settings (lots of green foliage, a few pretty flowers). 

It has always puzzled me that people label such pretty little things by such a perjorative name - WEEDS. One woman's weed is another one's ground cover, in my experience. :) Mostly 'weeds' are robust, hearty and compete well with grass. I think our cultural obsession with carefully manicured lawns must stem back to the days of animal husbandry and the maintenance of pasture land. (shrug) Hmm, some people like Shabby Chic, others prefer Queen Anne. :)

Things are developing into early summer outdoors here in eastern Maryland. The trees have all leafed out (hmm - is it 'leafed' or 'leaved'?) and a lot of lovely things are blooming. The rains have been coming down steadily, generally at night, so everything is GREEN in exuberance. :) Temperatures are around the mid-80s (fahrenheit) and the breezes are sweet ... bird songs and flight everywhere in the trees on our tiny plot (our house sits on a one-quarter acre pie-slice-shaped plot and has a dozen large trees on it, all around the house). I miss the birds when they get quiet in the fall and always enjoy their return in the spring.

Slowly, slowly, things are developing indoors here, too. I reluctantly decided that I just cannot go on my western trek to Kansas this spring. many and major sighes! My knee surgery is scheduled for May 27th and there are a million things that need doing at home before that date. I _have_ to clean up the mess, at least a surface lick-and-promise, for two reasons: I need to be able to recuperate in peace without being bothered by all the housework waiting for me and I want to bring in a hospital bed to sleep in downstairs during the low-mobility phase of my recovery (so there has to be room for it!:).

Yesterday I tackled straightening up the living room and sweeping the downstairs. I got about half done with the l.r. before I had to stop due to exhaustion. Today or maybe tomorrow (if I get self-indulgent:) I have to finish that task. :P Then I will seriously be focusing on setting up my sewing room (which means cleaning out my son's old room first, then sorting and setting up) - which will allow me to move most of the stuff that is sitting in the back of our living room right now into my sewing room. (whew!) Then I have to tidy our bedroom and I'll quit (for the time being).

Major labor to expend and little time to get it done. :P

Meanwhile, I think Skip and I (and Hugh, I hope) will go to our favorite neighborhood Chinese resturant for dinner tonight to celebrate Mother's Day. I have been so focused on my own Mom and her absence, I kind of forgot my own motherhood. :) I got a very nice Face Time phone call (similar to Skype) from my daughter shortly after I woke up today, too. Poor woman, she is suffering quite a lot of nausea and attendant ills, but is otherwise doing fine. We talked gardening (of all things:) for some time and enjoyed one another's company. I do so love my two offspring (no longer children, either one:)!

When I took a look in my yard yesterday, not only did I find the violets flowering, but the wild strawberries were in bloom, too. The birds will be so happy with the coming harvest. :)

Not too long ago I found a cross-stitch-able iPhone case at The Stitching Post and I've been embroidering on it as I watch Netflix in the evening (I'm catching up on Bones right now:). I wanted to dither over what design to do ... but decided on my initials, using the patterns developed by Kathy Shaw (and available free on her blog). The holes on this case are denser than the ones that are one the two I made for my husband and son - so the work is harder to see (I have really good close vision but the count is straining my eyes; I don't often wish for magnifyers:). I'll share a photo when the pattern is more recognizable.

:) Linda

Interesting Times?

Today was, hmmm, interesting. The weather was glorious yesterday (70's, sunny, balmy - spring!:) but today it is gray and intermittantly rainy, in the mid60's. I had an appointment at 1 p.m. in Baltimore. I've driven into the heart of Baltimore city several dozen times over the past forty years of living in the BaltWash corridor ... but not very often to the east side of town. So I left home at about 10:45 a.m. so I had plenty of 'room' for getting lost, etc. :P

Just like every other place in the northern 2/3rds of the US, this past winter was pretty tough on the road surfaces in the city - there were more potholes to bumpa-thump through with my car than I remember (although I do remember plenty of them:). Also the traffic was heavier in volume than I recall, but that might be because it was a work day. Luckily I had my iPhone and Maps to get me to the hospital without getting lost. :) I could have availed myself of valet parking but I decided to tough it out and use the parking ramp by myself.

My appointment was with the Cardiology Surgical Unit in the newest Hopkins building, the Zayed Tower. The last time I was at Hopkins, I was wishing for a ball of twine and an anti-labyrinth spell to avoid getting lost (it is a HUGE institution with seven or eight large buildings all connected together into a campus). This time I got lucky and managed to park where there was a skywalk from the ramp to the hospital.

It was interesting to me that the windows of the skywalk had etched markings (so birds could see the glass and avoid it) - but only over the parts that were above the sidewalks and grounds; the glass window-walls above the street portion of the skywalk were plain. Does that mean birds automatically stay away from the cars?? I was surprised the etchings didn't go all the way across the walkway.

One thing the builders did in the tower was be sure there was something arty to look at wherever you go. The photo above shows about half of an installation situated at the Tower side of the skywalk - I forgot to take down the artist's name but she called the array Dogwoody. It is made of cross sectional cuts from a single dogwood tree. I like the rose-shaped coloring of the larger cuts ... and I wonder what created the sort of peg shaped inlays on some of the smaller ones.

Here is another photo of a different section of the tree:

The point of my trip was to have a chemically-induced cardiac stress test. Apparently I have some kind of 'familial cardiomyopathy' (inherited weakness of one quadrant of my heart) and my doctor wants to be sure my heart is plenty strong enough for the knee surgery. I was a bit anxious about exactly how this would work - the only stress test I have ever had was back in 2010 and I reacted to the physical stress test with a 'false positive' (which is why she did not want to do another one of that kind:). Basically, they gave me a drug that caused my heart to beat harder and faster and took photos via sonogram of my heart before, during and after the drug.

My heartbeat is fairly slow (40 to 50 bpm) usually. The doctor wanted to get my heart rate elevated to at least 135 bpm for the test ... but the maximum med dose only raised it to 95. :) I sure hope that was good enough 'cause it is unlikely to do any better (when I ride my recumbent bicycle, the handlebar heart rate counter usually only gets up to 95 or so).

Anyway, when they finally finished (I was  in the room from about 12:15 until about 2:30 or so), I found my way back out through the hospital and back to my car in the ramp without incident (I was actually pleased with myself; I am _so_ talented at getting lost, indoors or out:). Had to buy gas on the way home but otherwise the trip was uneventful. Thank God!

I did manage to stop at Springwater Quilt Shop for a short visit with Dawn. I signed up to join in with the English Paper Piecing club....I don't need instructions but I do think the projects will be fun and I need to stay in touch with other quilters. :) Also, I'm going to have lots of hand-work time to fill (not that I have any lack of unfinished projects I could work on:).

:) Linda

PS Here are some photos of another art installation I saw in the hospital. This is small pieces of porcelain arranged on a large display (eight feet square?), titled Toile Garden. I thought from a distance that they were crocheted or woven. :) If you look carefully, you can see my reflection in the glass cover; there was no way for me to compensate for the reflections as the lighted windows to the outdoors were right behind me.

Hobbling Through

Thursday morning I had a doctor's appointment for a pre-operation check up. Actually, I saw the Nurse Practitioner (not sure I spelled that right:). She did the usual thumping and listening. They also took an EKG (heart electronics). She did not like my 'numbers' with that and referred me to see a cardiologist on Friday (haven't seen one since the debacle in 2010).

The day was gloriously lovely (high 60s in temperature, sunny, flowers everywhere) so I ate lunch by Lake Elkhorn (see photo above) - two more pictures of 'Along the Way' items. :) The Chinese cherry trees are blooming now.

As I walked past the same trees shown in the photo this morning, three little kids (2, 4, 6 years old?) and their grandfather were playing in the falling petals. Just like my kids used to play. :)

The cardiologist (whom I quite like) wants me to have another stress test. NOT the physical one I had before - which gave an entirely anomolous false positive result and led to a completely unnecessary angiogram. This time they will do a chemically induced stress test. Sigh. 

I had intended to leave this Monday morning to go to Kansas, but now I have to go to Johns Hopkins on Wednesday afternoon for the test ... so won't leave until Thursday (unless something _else_ comes up). :P Guess I need to go get my blood work done, too.

I am still physically exhausted from the extreme labor over the past two weeks. I had hoped to go work at my guild's quilt show this week ... but I am barely able to stand and walk around to get to these appointments. Came right home from both of them and went back to bed.

This weekend is the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival, too. Skip and Hugh want to go but I am not sure I'll be able to walk that much. (sigh) Sunday there are not one but two meetings in the afternoon I should attend (Sew & Tell and Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild). Busy, busy. Maybe I'll sleep through all of it so I don't have to make choices. :P

Linda